Дэвид Балдаччи - King and Maxwell

“I don’t see it,” said Sean. “He might have deleted it. That means we’re SOL. [15] SOL – shit outta luck. ”

“Highly doubtful,” said Edgar. “There are ways to fry drives. Unless you do, simple deletions mean nothing.”

Edgar hit some more keys, and a new list of posts appeared. “He also deleted it from his trash, but there was another cache it was copied to that wasn’t so apparent. Easy enough if you know where to look.”

“I’m glad you know where to look,” said Sean.

“There,” said Michelle, pointing at the third email from the top. “It’s from Sam Wingo.”

Sean and Michelle read it and then looked at each other. Sean said, “I don’t see anything in that message that Tyler wouldn’t want us or anyone else to know. It’s pretty short, and it’s just his dad talking about school and Tyler’s swimming.”

“Maybe that’s why he merely deleted it and didn’t truly erase it,” suggested Edgar.

“Did he reply to the email?” asked Sean.

Edgar hit some more keys but finally shook his head. “No.”

Michelle said, “Sean, look at the time stamp. It was sent after they told him his father was dead. Just like Tyler said.”

Sean ran his eye over the message again and an idea occurred to him.

“It might be in code, Edgar. Think you can help us out?”

“Right.” Edgar ran his eye over the message, his pupils flicking back and forth at speed. His lips were moving but no words were coming out.

He opened another screen and typed the letters IASPFM .

He said, “I ran it through the typical hundred or so initial possibilities. Looks to be an every seventh word, initial letter substitution cipher. Low security value point, but it’s so old and seldom used that it could have some worth. Useless against a real cyber strike, of course. And any legitimate code breaker would have had no trouble with it. But it is a bit more sophisticated since it spells out an acronym and not actual words, meaning it’s a double-layer encryption.”

“But what does the acronym mean?” asked Michelle.

“Ordinary web shorthand,” said Edgar, sounding surprised. “Initial letter based with straightforward extrapolation intended. I thought you would know.”

“I missed that class,” said Michelle.

“Me too,” added Sean quickly. “Along with all math and science courses.”

“It means ‘I am sorry, please forgive me,’ ” said Edgar.

Sean and Michelle exchanged a glance.

“Does that help?” asked Edgar.

“It certainly doesn’t hurt,” said Sean.

SEAN AND MICHELLE HAD JUST RETURNED TO their office when the phone rang.

It was Peter Bunting, head of a large defense contracting firm and Edgar Roy’s employer.

And the man was a little upset.

Sean actually held the phone away from his ear as Bunting’s screams poured out.

“Who exactly are we talking about, Mr. Bunting?” Sean asked when the man stopped to take a breath.

Bunting said something and Sean nodded. “Okay, we will look into this. And I’m sorry.”

Bunting yelled something and hung up.

Sean turned to Michelle.

“What was that all about?”

“DoD just came and yanked Edgar Roy from his office.”

“What? Why?” exclaimed Michelle.

“Cause and effect apparently.”

“Meaning we were the cause?”

Sean nodded. “Because of the timing Bunting can’t think of any other reason he would’ve been snatched, and I tend to agree with him. Edgar told him of our meeting.” He added, “Bunting’s a little mad right now.”

“I could hear. What did he say right before he hung up?”

“Something about damaging my testicles, although he used a less polite term.”

Michelle plopped into her desk chair and glanced at the door. “Should we be prepared for invasion too?”

“Edgar Roy is employed by a government contractor and thus technically works for the government. He did us a favor on government time. They may be able to ding him a little for that but there’s no way they’ll keep him locked up somewhere. He’s too valuable an asset.”

“Which doesn’t really answer my question. We’re not that valuable. So they wouldn’t have a problem locking us up and throwing away the key.”

“We’re also not employed by the government. And there’s the little issue of habeas corpus. That still means something in this country.”

“Yeah, but we got a government genius to hack a private account for us. Isn’t that illegal?”

“We also have the permission of the account holder to investigate. Tyler did hire us.”

“And he also fired us,” Michelle reminded him.

“A technicality only.”

“So you say.”

“I am a lawyer.”

“And lawyers are full of bullshit. In fact, they charge more for that.”

“If they break our doors down, I think we’ll have enough of a defense to escape any real trouble.”

Michelle feigned a smile. “Five years in prison versus ten, what a relief.”

“I tend to believe that the email came from Sam Wingo. Which means the Army is lying its collective ass off.”

Michelle said, “But what was he sorry for and why did he want his son’s forgiveness?”

“For lying to him? For getting into this mess and causing Tyler to suffer?” suggested Sean.

“Okay, but that leaves us with hunches and not a lot of paths to follow them up.”

“We have Tyler. We have Kathy. We have Dana. And we have DTI,” noted Sean.

“Let’s go with the low-hanging fruit first.”

“Dana?” said Sean.

“I was thinking Kathy.”

“You want to split up?”

“I’ll take Dana. You take Kathy.”

“You’re kidding, right?” he said.

“Am I?” she said, staring at him.

“Kathy doesn’t know me. And it might be a little awkward for me to be meeting a high school girl.”

“Okay, let’s partner up on both then. I’ve always wanted to meet your ex.”

“Always?”

“Always since yesterday.”

“She might not know anything yet. It hasn’t been very long.”

“From what you said, she can be very persuasive, particularly with her choice in clothes.”

“Why don’t you text Kathy first? If she’s found something out we can meet her. I’ll text Dana.”

“And DTI?”

“I’d love to hit those folks, but DoD has to be watching them.”

“Is there any law against us asking questions? People don’t have to answer.”

“Sometimes people make up their own laws. By the time it’s all figured out we’re eligible for Social Security.”

Michelle said, “It would help if we knew the names of some of Sam Wingo’s co-workers there.”

“Well, from what I could find out the actual office where Wingo worked isn’t that big. Maybe twenty people. I bet they all knew each other. At least somewhat.”

“Do we wait outside and see who looks promising when they leave work?”

“Maybe. But that will be after we meet with Kathy, if she has anything. Text her now.”

Michelle did.

Five minutes went by.

“Maybe she cut us off too,” said Michelle as she stared at her phone.

“Give it time.”

Another minute went by, and then a text popped up on Michelle’s phone.

“She talked to Tyler. She’ll meet us at the same café.”

“You should get a Panera card,” advised Sean.

Michelle frowned. “This thing is looking stranger by the minute. I don’t want to end up back in a CIA cell that no one knows about.”

Sean laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back in his chair. “Frankly, I’m more worried about Tyler and his stepmom than I am about us.”